Camargo Guarnieri

Camargo Guarnieri came from Tietê, a small town in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, where his music-loving father named him Mozart at birth; he later preferred his middle name. He trained and then taught in the city of São Paulo, and spent decades there as a conductor and as a teacher of younger Brazilian composers.

He belonged to the movement that wanted Brazilian concert music to sound Brazilian, drawing on the country's popular songs and dance rhythms rather than imitating Europe. His output is large: symphonies, concertos, and hundreds of songs and piano pieces, most of them crisp, rhythmic, and tightly made.

For a first listen, try the Symphony no. 2, subtitled Uirapuru after an Amazonian bird famed for its song, or the Piano Concerto no. 2.